King of Diamonds: About our Program
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For the past 21 years, The King of Diamonds World Peace Team has visited over two hundred cities in North America, Mexico, Australia, Europe, and the Caribbean, connecting communities with a message of Hope, Committment and Love, while addressing issues in today's "Culture Gone Adrift", especially those dealing with school age children.
The program is called, "As One".
Through implementing Arts, Music and Athletics, AS ONE, has been able to create dynamic programs within these communities that have had a lasting effect, lead in new directions, and promote a return to "Old School Values".
As One, has been tested in the most troubled and dangerous neighborhoods and by working with the juvenile justice system, takes aim at "Gangland USA" and the foster care system.
With the King of Diamonds, it is no secret who wears the crown.
"We have a saying, If you had a team, could I be on it?"
says founding member Charlie Dobbins.
"What we're trying to say is this is God's team and
we're just trying to find a place on it."
It¹s a hope-filled message, one of believing in yourself
and the gifts you have been given, that has been spread
across the United States and into Canada by Dobbins
and his teammates on the King of Diamonds,
It's a message that goes right to the hearts of the kids
that the King of Diamonds love to play for.
That message is: believe in your dreams.
"What we try to talk about is awareness, choice and
dreams of kids," said Dobbins, 53, who spoke to
The Register from his home in Raleigh, N.C.
"We try to present a message that you can do whatever
you want to do." What the King of Diamonds really is,
says Dobbins, is a "movable field of dreams."
The focus of the King of Diamonds is a picture of a
kid who's got our shirt on. That's the King of Diamonds.
That's where it all starts." Reaching out with the message
to everyone. This is emphasized in the team's logo, a multicoloured
hand on top of a globe.
"Each finger is a different colour," says Dobbins.
"We ask you to look beyond the color of a person's skin,
or their religion, creed, or sex, and to just look at the inner person."
Crowd participation is key to a King of Diamonds event.
Dobbins says before each game the finger logo is reproduced in graffiti style on a "peace tarp."
The kids in the audience are then invited down to sign the tarp, creating a piece of 'living art" for
the group sponsoring that evening's show.
"By signing the tarp we¹re asking the kids to commit to
their dreams," says Dobbins.
Success stories abound for the King of Diamonds.
One example is the first "Guns for Gloves" exchange
in Los Angeles in 1992. The team, along with
police and other local agencies, helped co-ordinate
the program that designated a number of troublespots,
asking youth to to take back their lives and commit
to peace. At the end of the program, a game was played
on what was a burned out street corner. A team of former
members of the notorious street gangs the Bloods and
Crips took on the King of Diamonds.
All told, 751 guns were taken from the streets
and exchanged for ball gloves, and 4,000 signatures
for peace were laid out on the infield.
The power of athletics is incredible in our world.
Today's high profile athletes are heroes to many youth,
but Dobbins feels there is not enough said about the good
athletes do off the field of play.
"(For an athlete) to be able to go out and do something
positive and influence a life that way, I think that needs
to be a headline too."
An influence is exactly what the King of Diamonds
has been. Dobbins regularly trades e-mails with the kids
who have seen him perform with the King of Diamonds .
Often it will be a kid telling him that he got a couple
hits in Little League that day, or seeking some baseball tips.
"It's like you're the Ann Landers of softball," he says.
"You only met them for a brief moment but you know
you made an impact on their life."